Evaluation of a Motion Capture and Virtual Reality Classroom for Secondary School Teacher Training

Abstract

Nowadays having qualified and experienced teachers in school classrooms is considered to be of the highest priority in any society. However, most teachers report that they haven’t received sufficient practical training to manage disruptive situations in the classroom. Fortunately, virtual reality can provide a solution to this issue. This paper will introduce ClassroomVR-MotionCapture (CVR-MC) and its evaluation by experts. CVR-MC is an IT tool that can simulate a virtual classroom, thus allowing different users to face real-life problems that usually take place in real classrooms. The system captures the users’ tone of voice and the substance of their speech, as well as their gaze and corporal movements. Virtual students will react according to these parameters. To evaluate the usability and functionality of the tool, we conducted a study involving 14 education professionals. The research question that guided the study was the following: is it possible to use the CVR-MC system in teacher training to improve teachers’ communication skills for classroom climate management? The main conclusion of our study is that many participants described the CVRMC system as a friendly, safe and feasible environment for teacher training, especially for improving their classroom climate management competence. However, the study also found that the emotions detected through the users’ body expression did not match the emotions they reported feeling during the test.